Food Smoking Chips

[GrunthosTheFlatulent]

I've tried searching the forum and found plenty about JD chips, but nothing which directly answers my question, so apologies if it's a stupid one.

I have whisky oak chips like this for hot smoking salmon. Could I use these for spirits, and if so, what sort of quantity to what sort of volume at what abv and for how long?

[chill]

My guess is that you would be extracting unwanted flavours or flavours in unwanted proportions using wood ground that fine. The JD chips are much, much larger.

Chuck

[Easydrinker]

These are merely my thoughts on this topic,and may be well off course.
I see no reason these would not work,assuming they are mostly nice clean wood from inside the barrel staves,and not just the dirty old outer wood- Are they the product of destructively shaving old barrels into oblivion,or the sweepings up from a cooperage re-making barrels from old ones?
These are so small,it would take a lesser weight than other users experience of JD chunks and chips,and probably a much lesser period of aging,(let's just call this maceration).
I believe commonly accepted starting aging ABV is around 63%,some dilute as time passes.
A quick nuke with a small sample may prove the worth of a longer aging time and sample.
Also,depending upon dust,the finished product may need filtering through paper.
If you give this a go,do let us know how it goes.
I now use chunks of old whiskey barrels,but thanks to you,am considering playing with the bucket of Beech shavings that I normally use for smoking,hadn't thought of it before.
If and when,I get around to it(working away from home next week),for me,around 20g to a litre for a couple of weeks would be a starting point.
I'd probably toast/grill them too,before use.
Clear as mud,innit?
Someone has to boldly go.................
Robert.

[GrunthosTheFlatulent]

Thanks for the comments. Good points there about how the chips are made.

I will look out for some JD chunks when the BBQ season starts but in the meantime, what the hell, I've got these smoking chips and 4 litres of low wines waiting for a spirit run at the weekend, I'll toss some in a jar and see what happens.

[Jolly John]

Some more information here:
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6597

All very interesting. I picked up an armfull of American white oak offcuts from my local timber supplier. Planks of varying lengths and widths, but all 20mm thick, gonna cut them in 20mm strips to give me 20mm x 20mm sticks, that I can cut to different lengths. Really nice thing is.....they were FREE!

Going to have some fun experimenting with toasting.

[chill]

That is a nice score! Now buy a used toaster oven so you can toast them outside away from the delicate nose of the wife!

[RumJohn]

Attn: Jolly John

Before you cut into strips, bear in mind that exposure to end cuts decreases the amount of time to age. Think of painting a board or something. The sides take a long time to dry but the end cut sucks up the paint.

[Jolly John]

Thanks John. I have read up about end grain exposure, obviously makes sense. For convenience, I will "toast" in longish pieces, I can then cut to various lengths, even cubes if I want. I do want to play with charring as well.

[Superslim007]

You can get about a 1Kg bag of JD Chips from B&Q they were £6 last year